Thor Heyerdahl

LILLEHAMMER, Norway - The visitors touring Maihaugen Heritage Village were itching with curiosity. They'd wandered the site's narrow lanes and peered inside the 200-year-old log cabins. They'd explored the craft shops and traditional hand-hewn barns brought from far-flung farms and forests and reassembled here, under the trees. Now they wanted to know if any of Norway's leading figures - statesmen, film makers, painters or artists - had their roots in these humble huts.

"What about Thor Heyerdahl, the anthropologist, who wrote "Kon-Tiki?" asked a bearded man in a brown sweater. "Is there a connection with Henrik Ibsen or Edvard Grieg?" said a woman with...